The Crystal Bride and the Lost Childhood
by spookytale
Summary: All is beautiful in the ponies' day when a magical creature tries to steal away a baby pony. Will the winter ponies be able to help? g3 and g1 ponies -reviews hugely appreciated
1. The Magical Morning

Note: Baby Glitterlilly is what I'm calling the mystery baby pony that comes with Rainbow Flash. If Hasbro ever releases the official name I'll be sure to update! ;P Also, it might help to know that I don't picture ponies as creatures that age much, so that is why Gingerbread is not old and creaky. And finally - Snowflake and Mittens are winter twins. They started life exactly the same, and then changed and grew apart as they aged. Glitterlilly is not related to them.  
  
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The clear blue sky was so crystalline and vibrant that the frolicking ponies could almost hear gentle notes on the soft breeze like fingertips softly sweeping across fragile glass goblets. Big fat delicious snowflakes danced gently down to tickle pastel fuzzy noses and to make fun-wonderful winter white drifts to jump in. It was one of those days that were so tangibly blissful that it made everyone feel lighter-brighter. So magical and pure that even the unicorns were impressed, but not so much so that they felt at all bad about adding a dash of flavor to the white flakes. Excited ponies danced all over the meadows and skating pond, catching lemon, strawberry, papaya, and even a rare rainbowberry snowflake or two.  
  
Snowflake reveled in skating impossibly fast, trying to catch her namesakes on her tongue. As she skated she shouted out encouragement to anyone that might be listening, including her newest little charge and friend. Skating wobbly to the side was shimmery purple Baby Glitterlilly, taking in the scene with the wide eyes and wobbly legs of the young. She was practically drowning in Snowflake's blue satin hood with white fur trim, but she was so excited that her skating teacher had offered to let her borrow it that she wore it with all the pride of a crown.  
  
"Oh wonderful," Snowflake gracefully slid up to the slowly sinking baby pony and gently nuzzled her gangly legs back under Glitterlilly. "I think you're really a natural!"  
  
Baby Glitterlilly paused to catch her breath and get the large hood off of her eyes. "With all of this snow to catch I don't even think about falling, and then I don't!"  
  
"Oh really? I want you to catch as many snowflakes as you can, we'll see who can catch the most flavors!" And with that Snowflake looked up, mouth wide, keeping one eye on the foal and one on the snow. They skated side by side, Snowflake discreetly averting any bruised baby knees or egos, excitedly calling out flavors and having giggle fits. The older pony wisely called it a day when Glitterlilly gave into temptation and started eating big mouthfuls of snowdrift. Snowflake had done that many times as a foal, and each time it had given her a terrible bellyache.  
  
"Can't we skate for just 5 more minutes?" Baby Glitterlilly asked, only to be rewarded with a stern look. She then asked if she could eat a few more drifts, only to receive another stern look. Glitterlilly was just about to unleash the big pleading doe eyes when Mittens came to the rescue of Snowflake.  
  
"Hello you ungraceful coot! How's the older twin?" Mittens jovially nuzzled her sister Snowflake, then paused to try to rescue the baby from the blue hood, which had slipped passed her little nose. "Do you know what makes atrocious fashion sense better you little squirt? The same thing that makes everything better! Gingerbread's cocoa and spiced cookies!"  
  
"Sweet younger sister, with age comes a true eye for fashion. Please never knit me a scarf, this new one is your most garish yet," Snowflake eyed the brightly colored creation while Baby Glitterlilly bounced around like a little rubber ball, squeaking excitedly about cocoa, "but please do lead the way to Gingerbread's!"  
  
The trio trotted off. The two sisters exchanged banter that seemed mean spirited, but was actually privately hysterical in a way only grown twins could understand. Sometimes the other adults worried that the banter would be detrimental to babies and younger ponies within earshot. However, if the baby currently within earshot noticed the sharp wit it certainly didn't seem to sour her mood. The worst effect seemed to be innocent peels of laughter, which were soon followed by an impressive burst of energy. The little foal had as much fire and vigor as her bright orange, pink, and white mane and tail suggested. Soon the tired sisters resorted to taking turns herding Baby Glitterlilly back into sight.   
  
As the three of them cantered up to the final bend in the path that would take them to Gingerbread's the heady aroma of cocoa made from dark chocolate and fresh cream wafted to their noses. The unicorns had magicked all of the snowflakes in the area to taste like marshmallows, and as soon as Baby Glitterlilly noticed she took off as fast as she could around the bend, unable to wait for cocoa any longer.  
  
"Oh Snowflake, it does smell good! Remember that time I ran away from home in the middle of the night because I thought I smelled cocoa?" Mittens asked as she sped up slightly to try to catch up with Baby Glitterlilly.  
  
"No I did that! I think...sometimes it's hard to keep our memories straight, even when we grew older and stopped looking the same. As Mother said, we do sometimes have one brain between us..." Snowflake swished her tail in thought, then looked around once they had rounded the bend.  
  
The cold air had not affected the wintery twins for the entire season, but as they took in the scene a cold chill ran down the sisters' backs in tandem. It was not the chill air that froze them- it was the realization of what they were seeing. Baby Glitterlilly's hoof prints ran towards a marshmallow drift, but they vanished before reaching it.  
  
"Glitterlilly! Glitterliiiiilly!" Snowflake called, whirling around wildly, "Mittens! Do you think she's already at Gingerbread's?"  
  
"You already know I don't. But I'll run up ahead to check!" Mittens took off, her bright pink tale waving behind her like an emergency flag.  
  
Snowflake called after her sister to send any unicorns out to look for the baby, and to make sure an alarm was raised. She watched her hours younger sibling dwindle on the path, unsure that Mittens had heard her shouts. Her ears flattened and her eyes started to glisten, panic welling up at the twin worries about Glitterlilly and not knowing how to make things better. Obviously Glitterlilly had to be found, but how?  
  
Snowflake followed the young pony's footprints to the snowdrift, then walked around it. No clues. Then she ran over a nearby serenely white grassy knoll wondering if the baby had somehow managed to jump and slip down it. There was no sign of the baby anywhere between the path and the dark frothy woods.  
  
Frustrated and scared the winter blue pony ran around and around the area where Glitterlilly should have been, crying out for her, tears starting to sting her cheeks. The crisp snow crackled under her pounding hooves, and bits of festive flavor choked her fear-riddled throat. Wild thoughts tore unbidden and painfully through Snowflake's frantic mind. Why hadn't she kept a closer eye on her? What if she was lost and injured? How could something like this happen so close to Gingerbread's? Just a few hundred feet more and they would have been sipping cocoa!  
  
"Gingerbread's!" Snowflake stopped short, speaking out loud to try to settle her nerves, "I bet she somehow got to Gingerbread's. She certainly isn't here. Maybe she caught a lift from a pegasus or winked on the back of a unicorn. There's a thousand and one ways for a baby pony to cause mischief in a magical land!"   
  
Snowflake took a deep breath and pushed a wayward lock of lavender hair out of her eyes. "Yes, today is a fine day for unicorns, and they've been out all morning casting flavor wishes on the snow. It's very likely that Glitterlilly couldn't resist an offer to travel with one. I should just go and have a laugh at the joke, after all Mittens is right. Cocoa does make everything ok."  
  
Snowflake breathed deeply, her breath misting out like a good dream, and shook off some of the stress clinging to her glistening coat. She forced a smile, then started to go towards Gingerbread's, convinced that the baby must now be there. Her hoof was raised mid step when she heard it- the alarm.  
  
"NO!"  
  
All of her hopes for finding Glitterlilly laughing safe and sound with a mug of cocoa half finished in her big awkward hooves were crushed with a hammer of sound. There could be no other reason for the alarm, it was too well timed to be a coincidence. 


	2. The Search Begins

A growing number of ponies herded into the courtyard, waiting to be organized into search parties. Mittens pranced angrily around in small circles.  
  
"This is all wrong Snowflake!"  
  
"I know! Babies shouldn't just vanish." Small tendrils of mist formed worried wisps as Snowflake spoke in the cold air.  
  
"No! I mean we shouldn't BE here. We should be out looking already!" Mittens snorted angrily, her peppermint pink ears flat against her head, "and I know you're going to tell me all about how we need a plan, and to be organized. So I'm just going to GO, and I hope you come with me. We lost her, we need to find her," Mittens reared up and pawed the air emphatically, "We need to find her now!"  
  
Snowflake started to placate her twin, but before she could Mittens had begun to gallop away, a flurry of snow following her pounding hooves. As she watched her sister dwindling Snowflake realized that she was right, their place was out in the snowy wilds, and it would be until they found their little friend. They simply could not feel right returning to Ponyville until Baby Glitterlilly was returned.  
  
The low moaning woods met them with open arms. As they ventured into the forest the sun dipped below the horizon, bathing the land in an eerie blue violet glow. Everything started to look cold and twisted where before it had looked white and pure. The shadows reached out and seemed to chase their hooves as they plowed through the snow.  
  
"Mittens, what are we looking for?"  
  
"We're looking for a witness, or a clue." A wise and friendly voice answered from behind them, startling both the sisters. "Would you mind repeating who was around when she vanished?"  
  
"Gingerbread!" The two sisters cried at once, both of them bounding over to greet the older white mare. "What are you doing here?"   
  
"You were on your way to see me, so I feel responsible in a way." Gingerbread shushed their protests by gently huffing and continuing, " Besides, I helped find Mittens when she was a baby and had run away from home to find my cocoa. Maybe my experience will be helpful?"  
  
Mittens sneaked Snowflake a look that clearly said *I knew that was me!* before answering, "No one was there except me and Snowflake. Now lets keep looking for clues!"  
  
Wise bright eyes twinkled as Gingerbread took a slow look around. "You two...and the trees?"  
  
"You don't think she was cocoa crazed enough to climb a tree, do you?"  
  
Gingerbread laughed, "No, I think we should ask the trees if they saw anything."  
  
Snowflake thought she heard Mittens say something about their old friend cracking from the stress, but a quick look revealed that she hadn't said anything. Though it did seem a bit strange to find Gingerbread following them in the woods, in the first place. Maybe being associated with another missing foal was too stressful.  
  
Gingerbread pulled out a pouch from a purse around her neck. "Do you remember that old story about how I made gingerbread cookies with stardust? The eyes were so bright, and everyone that ate one was blessed with bright eyes like mine. It seems silly, but it's a true story," Gingerbread had pulled out a few shimmery leaves as she spoke. "Ever since then I've collected magical herbs, spices, and sugars. You never know when you'll need a magical torte, after all!" The leaves were caught up in an evening wind, and soon became entangled in the branches of a Birch tree.  
  
"Oh, you lost your leaves!" Mittens chased after a few while Snowflake looked on the ground for some. Finding none she turned back to Gingerbread, "Were those leaves from a tree we could talk to?"  
  
"I hope not child, the only ones with leaves this days are the Evergreens, and they have fir-for-brains," said the chuckling Birch tree. "You wouldn't want to talk to THEM." 


	3. Birch

Snowflake stopped short, her blue eyes wide, her mouth ajar. Gingerbread chuckled politely at the birch tree's joke. Mittens frowned and gave her cutie mark a reassuring glance. The awkward silence lasted long enough that Snowflake was willing to believe that she'd been hallucinating, and was rather glad for it.  
  
"That's a bit rude, innit?" Said Mittens, stamping her rear hoof perfunctorily, turning her gaze on the tall white tree.  
  
"Oh I'm sorry, deary," creaked the snow covered tree. "I'm afraid I should have though my words over first. You'd think us trees would do a lot of thinking, but sometimes old rivalries get in the way. An evergreen in a perfectly lovely cutie mark."  
  
Mittens snorted, but seemed mollified. Snowflake watched her sister, somewhat impressed that she was able to calmly talk to a birch tree. Snowflake herself still felt like she was going to start hysterically flailing and screaming oh-my-goodness-the-trees-are-talking-to-us-and-a-baby-is-missing-and-the-trees-are-watching-our-every-move-oh-my-goodness! She took a quavering breath, and sternly reminded herself that if she was going to live in a land imbued with magic she really should just get over it.  
  
"Now then," said Gingerbread, "thank you for letting us enchant you for just a bit. My name is Gingerbread, and these are my young friends Snowflake and Mittens. We're looking for a purple baby, she vanished near these woods. Have you seen her?"  
  
"No, I'm sorry." The tree rustled, giving an impression of discomfort. Another awkward silence settled over the group; one of the silvery leaves crumbled and fell to the ground.  
  
Snowflake glanced from side to side. She worked up her courage, determined to find Glitterlilly, even if it meant standing in the woods talking to trees. "Or..anything?" She prompted, "anything at all? We just HAVE to find her!"  
  
"No deary, I'm sorry. I haven't seen anything, just the gloomy spirit of the winter snow, wandering these woods like a sepulchral spirit from days of old." The tree paused as another enchanted leaf fell from her branches.  
  
"Oh well, the, uh, what? Would he have taken her? He isn't an agent of the Dark Rainbow? Oh, heavens!" Snowflake looked like she might faint.  
  
"Oh no, he's no more evil then the snow he brings. He's just very sad, and trying to fulfill a promise - one that did not directly have anything to do with babies, I might add." The tree almost giggled.  
  
Gingerbread narrowed her bright crystal blue eyes in thought. "Thank you, dear Birch. Perhaps, though, you should simply tell us the story, since it seems to be one we have not heard. It might cut down on future confusion."  
  
The branches shook, as the tree took a deep breath. "Oh, yes. It's a rather sad story..." 


	4. The Winter Snow

"Back when the world was new, and the immortal spirits of magic were just learning their place in this land, the spirit of the winter snow was still a young man - an artist and an explorer.  
  
"while he was exploring he met a beautiful woman. She had pale soft skin, and fragrant blue hair. She had cool eyes, and the warmest heart he'd ever seen. He loved her as soon as he saw her, and every minute with her he loved her more. She loved him as well, and she swore to spend the rest of her days with him.  
  
"He took her away with him. Her love made him feel so light, so high, that the only place he could find that seemed suitable was the floating island of Luminance. It floated on clouds, surrounded by a myriad of crystalline songbirds. As they flew their bodies cast rainbows about the lovers, and their songs always soothed them.  
  
"As a gift to her he enchanted the waterfall to freeze, and to cast small frozen flowers and stars about her feet and hair. She laughed, and delightedly told him that these flowers should be his spirit gift to the world. He agreed that whenever the world below was cold enough to hold them he would send the tiny six-pointed flowers down to delight the world as much as they delighted his truest love.  
  
"For decades they danced, and loved, and reveled in each others company on the island of Luminance. He wove feathers from the crystal birds into her hair, and she would sing him to sleep every night. Their love was absolute.  
  
"However, for all of his magic he did not have the power to grant immortality. He cared for her and loved her, even as she aged. She spent exactly one hundred and twenty years of delight with him. As the sunlight began to fade at the end of her last day she lay in his arms. She pressed her thin shaky hand to his cheek, her cool blue eyes bright and clear. She made him promise that he would love again, that one day he would find happiness as bright and true as he had found with her. And then she faded away.  
  
"For a millennia he stayed on Luminance. The songbirds flew away, the brightness faded. The life left the island, but still he sat by the waterfall, directing snow to the cold lands, and brooding on his promise. He could not bear to break it, but he also could not bear the thought of loving another that was doomed to age as he lived on. Rather then decide, he simply stayed on the island.  
  
"As the other spirits lost interest in giving gifts to the land and flitted about carelessly he still spread snow. Even as he sat lonely and lost his gift delighted the world, and helped keep the cycle of life safe. The Rainbow of Light noticed that he alone was infinitely dependable, and that he alone was drifting lost in such deep sorrow.  
  
"The Rainbow visited him on Luminance. It wrapped about his brow and made him a solemn promise. If he would keep his vow to his love, the rainbow would grant immortality if her love was true. He needn't worry about losing another, the Rainbow would protect him from such pain.  
  
"His heart filled with hope. Life returned to the island, songbirds sang anew. Now every blue moon he..."  
  
A gust of wind blew the last remaining enchanted leaf from the birch. The white tree now sat silently in the deep darkness of the night, illuminated only by the light of the full moon.   
  
"Oh bother," said Mittens "I rather wanted to know what happened next." 


End file.
